By By RYAN STEWART / Niles Daily Star
NILES - For 71 years, the Niles Service League has been working primarily with schools through the League's “School Liaison Program” and through word-of-mouth to help in any way they can with children and teens in the Niles area. They also support and help out with school sponsored events, sports teams and leagues.
The Niles Service League, which is made up of about 30 volunteer women, has for at least 20 years sponsored and organized a Charity Ball fund-raiser. Most of the money that is made from the event goes to college scholarships and for various kinds of camps for junior high students. Through the course of the year the Service League hopes to award $9,000 to 10,000 worth of college scholarships.
The 2006 Charity Ball will be held this coming Saturday, Feb. 11 at the Niles Inn &Conference Center at 930 S. 11th St.
This year's ball will feature a dance by the Niles Performing Arts Academy and two vocal performances by local high school students.
There will be a basket auction that will feature various “fruit basket” type items, which area businesses have donated. Some of the baskets items include: Ryan Newman memorabilia, taxidermy items, salon, tanning and massage packages, car care items, jewelry and a flight over Lake Michigan.
The auction is actually more of a raffle as guests attending the event will be able to purchase tickets and winners will be determined by random drawings.
There will be a DJ for dancing and a portrait photographer. The event will be catered by ‘Food By Karen &Co.'
The Niles Service League started when some women in Niles noticed some children playing down by the river without coats or boots in the middle of winter. Those women decided to help and the league was born.
One example of help, Donahue remembers, was when the league learned from a local band teacher how a certain student's parent was no longer employed and the student's music instrument was going to be repossessed. The Service League sprang into action and bought the instrument for the student.